"Did you hear what happened in the library today?" Lavender Brown.

"No. What happened?" Parvati asked as she kept the book down in order to listen to Lavender who was usually the biggest source of juicy news and rumors going around in Hogwarts.

"Well hear this," Lavender said and waited until all the girls in the common were paying attention to her before she continued "Harry Potter was attacked by Draco Malfoy and a dozen other Slytherins today in the library."

A collective gasps went through the common room and Lavender once again basked in their undivided attention for a moment.

"What happened then?" Parvati asked.

"Why would Draco attack the Harry Potter?" Kellah asked from behind Parvati.

Ron Wesley snorted at that. "He's a evil prat that's why. Just like all the other snakes. I bet they wanted the glory of beating the great Harry Potter." He spat with some derision and the girls rolled their eyes at his stupid hatred of all things Slytherin and his unreasonable scorn for the Boy-who-lived simply because he was not sorted into Gryffindor.

"So what happened to the phantom-boy-who-lived?" Fay Dunbar asked.

"Phantom-boy-who-lived?" Parvati asked with confusion.

Fay shrugged at her inquiry "I dunno but that's what his housemates are calling him. Apparently none of them had been able to even talk with him so far or seen him in the common room."

"Really?" Semus Finnegan asked from the other side of the room.

"That's what those Claws are saying." Fay said while Parvati looked at Lavender with irritation "We're getting out of topic. Tell us what happened to Harry Potter then. And why did the Slytherins attacked him in the first place."

At that point, a sly look crossed Lavender's face and she smiled at the girl "You know the time when the second years found Draco Malfoy stuck on the wall with a Princess dress."

"Who doesn't know about that?" Fay said with a smile with the rest of the students laughed at that.

"Yes well, rumors say that it was Harry Potter who did that to Malfoy and his goons." Lavender said in a conspiratorial tone.

"Oh! That would explain why Draco Malfoy would try to attack Harry Potter then. But you've still not told us what happened when those Slytherins attacked him."

"Leave it to the Slimy gits to gang up on a single person." Ron snorted from the other side of the common room and the girls rolled their eyes once again.

"Did they hurt him too bad?" Parvati asked.

"What are you talking about?" Semus asked "He's Harry Potter. Not some normal guy. I bet he beat the crap out of those Slimy snakes."

"Seriously Semus." Parvati said with a huff "He may be the boy-who-lived but at the end of the day, he's just a boy like all of us. Or don't tell me that you actually believe those children books written about him."

"Well that's where the story actually become interesting." Lavender said with a barely concealed smile as she became the center of attention once again.

"Tell us, what happened." Fay asked with excitement.

"Well, Draco Malfoy and his goons along with Markus Flint, the Slytherin Quidditch caption and their whole team attacked Harry Potter" she said and paused for suspense before continuing "And were all beaten black and blue by him and then sent to the Infirmary."

"No way." Parvati asked with huge eyes while the rest of the common room broke into commotion at once.

"How did he do it?" Semus asked once the commotion had subsided.

"I don't know what exactly happened but I've heard that a whole bunch of books shelves were destroyed in their fight and that Draco Malfoy was struck so hard that he apparently lost a few teeth and lost his consciousness immediately."

"Good for him." Ron shouted and the whole common room cheered once again simply for the fact that Slytherins, there universal enemies, suffered defeat and for the fact that no one in the Gryffindor house really liked Draco Malfoy.

"What happened afterwards?" Parvati asked with anticipation. "Was Harry Potter injured in the fight as well?"

"And that's an even bigger surprise." Lavender said with a sly smile "He didn't even received a single scratch throughout the whole fight. Though I heard that Madam Pince came and took him to Headmaster after that. And no one has seen him ever since then."

With that the whole common room devolved into conversations once again as the first years wondered what would happen to the elusive Harry Potter once he met the Headmaster and Lavender Brown preened under the attention of anyone who wanted to hear the whole story once again.

—————

"Severus my boy, would you like some lemon drops?" Headmaster Albus Dumbledore asked and Severus held the urge the scowl. Well… scowl harder in his case.

He always hated it when Dumbledore called him a boy but it wasn't like he was in a position to argue with the Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump of Magical Britain. So he just held his tongue and ignored those words with a shake of his head to denote that 'no, he would not be eating any Lemon Drops. Ever.'

"Alas. So few of us truly appreciate a good sweet after a long and tiring day." The old monster said in a grandfatherly tone. Yes, he knew that Albus was a monster on his own. A true Powerhouse. The dark lord and his cronies might call Albus a senile old fool and a blood traitor all they liked but even they were not stupid enough to attack Hogwarts under his supervision.

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He walked up and sat the room beside Irma Pince who he could tolerate better than most since she was a Slytherin and since she usually had nothing much to say in these meetings.

He looked around at the other teachers in the room and his gaze fell on Quirinus Quirrel who looked at the him as well and then did the best imitation of a frightened mouse under the gaze of a cat. Why Headmaster Dumbledore ever hired that stuttering fool was beyond his comprehension but he could tell that there was something wrong about Quirrel. Something dark which made him a bit wary of the stuttering man.

He had no proof of course. Just a simple feeling that there was something wrong. But in his profession of a double agent he had learnt to listen to his intuition above all else. Something which had served his well over the years.

"Now that Severus is here as well." Dumbledore said, breaking him out of his thoughts. "We can start the weekly staff meeting." He said with that grandfatherly smile that put everyone at ease. Severus wondered how long it took the headmaster to master that smile to the point that it looked so genuine. Because of course, Dumbledore might look kind, innocent and grandfatherly on the outside but no on truly remains those things after going through two wars.

He knew because he had participated in one of those wars himself.

War always had a habit of changing people and bringing the worst out of them. And even someone as powerful as Headmaster Dumbledore was not impervious to those changes.

Which was why there was now a Cerberus in the third floor in a school full of students.

He watched patiently as the teachers went about giving their usual reports to Dumbledore about their subjects and the exceptional students.

The Twin Wesleys were mentioned a few times and he wondered if he scowled harder at that. He never really liked bullies and that's what those two were. Bullies. They might hide it under the disguise of being a prankster but he knew what they truly were. He knew about it all from his own experiences.

How everyone else only saw James Potter, Sirius Black and their two friends as simple pranksters who only performed pranks for a good laugh or two. And how they made his life a living hell in his time in Hogwarts.

How they took everything from him. Including his precious Lily…

No. Don't go there. Those memories are too painful.

Thankfully, he was once again brought out of his thoughts and this time by none other than Madam Pince.

That's unusual.

But after hearing about what she was complaining about, it didn't take long for him to join her camp.

Her camp, which had a rather simple motto.

Ban the Potter Brat from ever taking a step inside the Library and give him the harshest of punishments so that he may learn from his mistakes.

He knew of course, that Dumbledore would not punish his golden boy but he knew... He knew the truth behind the mask of the golden boy.

The boy was just like his father.

He had already heard about the rumors that said that the Potter Brat had already once attacked his godson, Draco Malfoy and left him stuck on a wall with some Girly dress.

He himself could remember such a thing happening to him in his school years. The embarrassment. The helplessness. The anger.

He fought the hardest for the Potter brat to gain a harsh punishment. Even expelling him from the school won't be good enough in his eyes.

Of course, Minerva and Flitwick quickly sided against him in order to support the golden boy and claimed that he simply hated the boy because of his father.

Those blind people.

How could they not see that if they let him get away with it then he would just do it all over again.

But in the end Headmaster once again supported the bullies and sided with his golden brat and gave him the simple punishment of Banning him from the Library for a month.

Severus scowled at that but he knew when to accept a defeat. He would just have be more strict with that brat in his own class.

"Thank you for your time." Albus said with a flourish and stood up from his chair, the rest of the staff standing up along with him "It does good for my old heart to know how wonderfully the children are performing in their classes."

"Now I know that you all have better things to do then keep company to an old man like me. Thanks for your time." He said with a grandfatherly smile and the rest of the staff saw for what it was, a subtle and nice way of telling them to get the fuck out of his office. And they did.

Once the staff had left, only he, Flitwick, Minerva and Sprout remained. It was an informal private meeting between the headmaster and the four head of houses of sort that always took place after the staff meeting. One where the four staff members who interacted with the students on a personal level could bring more news to the headmaster about students of interests.

Students like Harry Potter.

Minerva had nothing to say about the boy as she had almost no recollection of the boy ever being in her class. Not that Harry Potter had not attended her classes. That he did. But the boy always sat in the last seat at the corner and stayed silent throughout the class, which was the reason why she was able to miss his presence.

Permona had similarly nothing new to say about the Potter brat though she went to great length talking about Neville Longbottom of all people. Severus barely held a snort as the plump woman described how much of a prodigy Neville was in Herbology.

Since the boy was just as equally prodigious in blowing up cauldrons.

Then his turn came and just like always, he held his thoughts to his own self telling them that there were no exceptional students in his class, which was true in a way.

Even if there were, he would never sell out his snakes and bring them to the light. Few cunning people ever liked to maneuver in the light. No, that stage was better left off for the foolish lions.

And last but not the least, it was time for the Head of House Ravenclaw to lay down his cards and what the diminutive man next said shocked everyone present in the office by no small amount.

A 1st year student capable of performing charms that a 6th year students would find difficult to perform.

If Severus had not known the Flitwick for almost 20 years of life, then he would have directly accused the man of being a liar and a braggart but he knew the man too well and knew that he would not concoct such a half baked lie. Moreover, he had no reason nor motivation to lie to the headmaster for no apparent reason.

Severus was not at all shocked when Headmaster Albus Dumbledore admitted that even he was not as good in his favorite subject, transfiguration, when he was a student in Hogwarts.

Of course he was not.

What kind of monster was capable of performing a 6th year charm in his 1st year.

Then Flitwick shocked them once again by telling them that this prodigious boy was none other than the great Harry Potter.

Snape once again held his tongue at that to cry out at the unfairness of it all.

It seemed like Potter men always had all the luck in the world.

Regardless, this was big news and after that revelation about the Potter brat, the room held a solemn air as everyone thought about the implication behind such a news.

If it was true, which he believed to be the case, then they possibly had a once in a century, no scratch that, once in a millennium genius in their hands who had the habit of being a recluse and had made no friends so far.

After some more small talk, which no one was particularly interested in, the headmaster told them to keep a news a secret, even from the other staff members and allowed them to leave to their respective rooms.

As he left to his own office in the dungeons, Severus thought about the implications of having such a genius on their hands and how the Dark Lord would react to it once he came to know about the boy's talents.

And as much as Severus disliked the boy, he knew that he would do his best to hide the boy's talent from the dark lord as well.

For as long as he could.

For Lily.